The national group that works to get Republicans elected governor is using footage of a grieving father to hammer Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper for indefinitely delaying the execution of killer Nathan Dunlap.

The Denver Post has been told the Republican Governors Association is spending $2 million for the “substanial” ad buy, which kicks off Monday.

The ad features a heartbroken Dennis O’Connor, whose 17-year-old daughter Colleen was one of four people killed at an Aurora pizzeria in 1993 by Dunlap, a disgruntled former employee. O’Connor said he waited 20 years for justice to be done, but Hickenlooper “robbed” the victims with his decision.

Running mates for Gov. John Hickenlooper and Republican nominee Bob Beauprez debated a governor’s role in the economy, fracking, the death penalty and more during a half-hour debate taped at Colorado Public Television’s Denver studio Wednesday afternoon.

The debate in its entirety will air on CPT on Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m.

At the height of the debate, Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia twice accused Douglas County Commissioner Jill Repella of being confused about the death penalty and fracking. Repella said Hickenlooper “punted” on the fate of death row inmate Nathan Dunlap by granting a temporary reprieve last year.

“We don’t pick and choose which law we want to apply, and which law we don’t want to apply,” Repella said. “We don’t have the opportunity to question it. The judicial branch of government is government. It went through that process.”

She added: “The laws of Colorado are crystal clear. What’s alarming to me is the inability to make a decision, one side or the other.”

Garcia caused some among the dozen reporters and campaign staffers watching the taping on a monitor in the green room to lean back, and someone let out a whistling sigh as the lieutenant governor responded.

A CNN documentary on the Nathan Dunlap capital punishment case is set to air Sunday after making headlines in Colorado last week. That’s when a yet-to-be-aired interview with Gov. John Hickenlooper surfaced, and in it he suggested he could grant the convicted killer clemency.

Gov. John Hickenlooper made his position on the death penalty clear in a Sunday TV interview. (Lewis Geyer/Times-Call)

The episode of “Death Row Stories” is scheduled to premier at 8 p.m. Mountain time on the television news channel.

The governor’s campaign said Hickenlooper’s comments during the CNN interview do not represent any altering in Hickenlooper’s sentiments from a May 2013 indefinite reprieve he granted to Dunlap.

In the CNN interview, Hickenlooper said he didn’t want the Dunlap case to become a “political football” and that “We won’t let that happen.” Hickenlooper told CNN it would be “unacceptable” for anyone to make the death penalty — specifically the Dunlap case — into a campaign point.

Gov. John Hickenlooper granted Nathan Dunlap, right, a reprieve from the death penalty. (Post file)

Nathan Dunlap.

It’s a name that, as of late, has become ever-present in Colorado politics.

A year ago today, Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper granted Dunlap a temporary reprieve from capital punishment — a sentence handed down to Dunlap, who was convicted of killing four people at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese’s in December 1993.

“My decision to grant a reprieve to Offender No. 89148 is not out of compassion or sympathy for him or any other inmate sentenced to death,” Hickenlooper wrote in his executive order. “The crimes are horrendous and the pain and suffering inflicted are indescribable. I have enormous respect for the jurors who deliberated over Offender No. 89148’s case, the decision they rendered, and the amount of reflection they demonstrated in discharging their civic duty.”

The temporary reprieve Hickenlooper granted Dunlap is a decision that upset people on both sides of the political aisle and those involved in the debate over capital punishment. Death penalty opponents were upset it left the door open for future governors to execute Dunlap, while proponents, and many families of victims, argued Hickenlooper gave a pass to a convicted murderer that Colorado jurors sentenced to die.

Hickenlooper’s move has become persistent political fodder among the four GOP candidates vying to oust him from office this November. Dunlap’s name is often brought up at debates, in campaign videos and in stump speeches. All of the Republican candidates have vowed to execute Dunlap — a practice not used in Colorado since the 1997 execution of Gary Davis.

Republicans are crowing about the latest Rothenberg Political Report, which has moved Gov. John Hickenlooper’s relection bid from “Safe” to “Democrat Favored.”

“Not long ago, Democratic Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado looked like a sure bet for a second term in 2014 — and a place on the list of dark-horse candidates for the 2016 presidential contest,” according to the blog. “But his last few months have been rocky, and a couple of public polls have poked a hole in his political armor. Along with his widely criticized handling of a death penalty case, Hickenlooper enacted a decidedly left-of-center agenda in recent months.”

But the blog points out that “Republicans need a credible candidate to take advantage of Hickenlooper’s potential vulnerability.” So far, former Rep. Tom Tancredo and Secretary of State Scott Gessler are looking at the GOP nomination.

“We are moving the race from ‘Safe’ to ‘Democrat Favored’ in our Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call ratings, though Republicans still have a long way to go before putting this contest seriously into play,” the blog says.

The ranking of “Democrat Favored” isn’t a problem for Rick Palacio, chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party, who pointed out the state as never been solidly blue or safe.

“Colorado has been, and will continue to be, a swing state that leans Democratic,” he said. “That said, Republicans have fallen down on their job when it comes to recruiting a challenger who is even taken seriously by Coloradans, let alone competitive in 2014.”

In a written statement, she suggests she wished the governor had ruled differently.

“I respect the governor’s decision-making authority to grant a reprieve,” Fields writes in her statement. “However, as a victim of a horrible crime and on behalf of other victims and their families, I am saddened by the governor’s decision yesterday.”

The Aurora Democrat, of course, has a personal interest in the death penalty debate. Her son and his fiancee were killed by the other two members of Colorado’s death row. She remains supportive of the ultimate penalty.

Fields was not available for comment Wednesday, following Hickenlooper’s announcement.

Attorney General John Suthers issued an exceptionally strong statement today about Gov. John Hickenlooper’s decision to grant death row inmate Nathan Dunlap a reprieve.

Suthers, a former district attorney, doesn’t usually criticize the other constitutional officers, but he clearly was upset.

“I have an excellent working relationship with the governor and I respect him very much,” Suthers said, in his comments. “Yet it’s been apparent to me that issues of crime and punishment are not his strength. John Hickenlooper is an optimist. He has proven to be uncomfortable confronting the perpetrators of evil in our society.”

Suthers is a Republican, Hickenlooper a Democrat. Here is Suthers’ full statement:

“It’s been my observation over many years that the extraordinary powers we give the president and our state governors is the one place in the criminal justice system where personal philosophy can trump the rule of law. And make no mistake about it — that is exactly what has happened in the case of People v. Nathan Dunlap.

Meet Dorothy Hendee, the lone woman in the Colorado House of Representatives in the 1943-1944 session, who fought to allow women to serve on juries despite fierce opposition because of their “inability to assess evidence correctly.”

The Denver Republican, who died in 2003, described her legislative experience years later in a letter to the editor.

Women shouldn’t sit on juries, opponents said, because of “excess emotionalism, inability to assess evidence correctly, monthly disability/physical disability, and it would cost too much to put plumbing for women in the courthouses.”

Hendee’s story and the story of other women lawmakers who have served in the Colorado legislature has been shared on the House floor most mornings this month as part of Women’s History Month.

On Monday afternoon, Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, introduced a measure to have voters decide in 2014 whether to repeal the death penalty. Last Friday, two House Democrats, Reps. Claire Levy of Boulder, and Jovan Melton of Aurora, introduced a bill to allow lawmakers to repeal capital punishment. It will be heard Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee.

“The citizens should weigh-in on this,” said Fields. “I don’t personally believe this is up to lawmakers to decide.”

Her son, Javad Marshall-Fields, and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe, were gunned down while driving in Aurora in 2005. The two were set to testify in a pending murder case. Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray are both on Colorado’s death row for their involvement in the murders.

The third man on death row is Nathan Dunlap, who killed multiple people in an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese back in 1993. Dunlap is slated for execution later this year.

Neither Fields nor Levy’s measures would impact those already on death row, or someone charged with a crime before their proposals became law.

The last person the state of Colorado put to death was Gary Davis in 1997.

Colorado’s 18th Judicial District Attorney will decide next month if James Holmes, the man charged with killing 12 in an Aurora movie theater last July, will face the death penalty.

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.